Just like life, crafting and creativity move in seasons. You can learn to be more creative overall, but it’s hard to force creativity during a dry period. This can be tricky when you feel like you need to produce on a schedule.
Of course, sometimes you really are on a schedule. If you’re a designer who has commitments to third-party publications, for example, then you do need to find some way to push through the slump. But otherwise, the making can ebb and flow. You don’t need to force yourself, and in fact, forcing yourself might end up sucking all the joy out of it. There’s enough of that in life already without having to bring it to your knitting life.
So what to do when you hit a slump? Don’t fight it. It’s like the advice for getting out of a riptide, and the same thing applies here you find your creativity in a slump. Don’t swim directly against it. Swim to the side. Go for walks, drink your water, get your sleep, and do whatever other necessary but unglamorous self-care tasks you need to do to restore yourself.
Often times, a slump in creativity is a result of burnout, and you can’t make your way to the other side of burnout by pushing harder. You have to give yourself space and time. In a world where social media is constantly demanding new content, that can feel like an impossible ask. How do we give ourselves more time when people will forget about us if we don’t feed the algorithm?
But it turns out, people don’t forget. When you build relationships and nurture them, you can take a break from your social media, your blog, or whatever else it may be, and when you come back, people will be glad to see you. You’ll also be glad to see them because you are rested and restored.